Baltimore Sun, MD
01-04-07
Pelosi suited for politics
As Nancy Pelosi becomes the first female speaker of the House, she's already
winning votes for her fashion sense
By Tanika White
Sun reporter
Amid strawberries and sparkling water, coffee and petit fours, powerful women
from all walks of life mingled yesterday at Mellon Auditorium in Washington,
awaiting the arrival of Nancy Pelosi, the soon-to-be first female speaker of the
House of Representatives, who was being honored at a Women's Tea.
Speakers introducing Pelosi, who will be officially sworn in as speaker today,
spoke in celebratory, grand language: Because of her, glass ceilings had been
shattered. The agenda of politics was being transformed. We are women - and
we have made it!
But there were also quieter side conversations, appreciating Pelosi for a smaller,
but not insignificant achievement: her impeccable taste.
"I think she's very stylish," says Cookie Whamond, a former classmate of Pelosi's
at Trinity University. "We were at Mass today and I noticed her clothes. She had
on these beautiful high heels. She had on a gorgeous suit with this lovely, flowing
skirt. She looked wonderful."
When it comes to Pelosi, a Baltimore native, syndicated columnist Lisa Daily is
reminded of what designer Coco Chanel famously said: "Dress shabbily and they
remember the dress. Dress impeccably and they remember the woman."
Some have gone so far as to describe Pelosi as "chic," a compliment usually
reserved for socialites and glossy fashion magazine editors - and rarely, if ever,
for Washington politicians.
"Even though women have been getting elected in larger numbers since the
1990s, they're still very much a minority in the world of politics," says Dianne
Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and
Politics at Iowa State University. "They have more limits on how they can
dress."
To be classified as chic or especially stylish requires the wearer to possess a
certain flair for fashion that often crosses those implied boundaries. Wearing an
unexpected color or pattern, perhaps. Or adding a scarf to a business suit, or a
bold piece of jewelry.
Pelosi has, at some point, done all these things, and then some, with success.
During a televised interview with NBC's Tim Russert last summer, Pelosi's jacket
was an unconventional pale green. She paired a gray suit with an of-the-moment,
multistrand of black pearls on election night. And once, at a forum to discuss
health care during the Democratic National Convention, Pelosi's bold yellow
pantsuit was accentuated with a scarf, neatly wrapped and tucked at her
neckline.
The effect isn't fabulous, so much as it is solidly feminine - a trait many of her
female counterparts hesitate to project, or worse, are unable to do without
appearing frilly and out-of-place.
Most play it safe
Too often, says Kirsten Osolind, CEO of Re:Invention Inc., a marketing agency
that helps corporations sell more of their products and services to working
women, female politicians are excoriated for fashion choices that are too
feminine or fierce. That may be why, to be safe, many female politicians stay
within the established fashion parameters set by their male peers: black, navy
blue, gray. Stiff, boxy, angular. And few accoutrements.
But Pelosi confidently bucks that trend. She uses color in a manner few of her
peers seem comfortable doing.
Red is a Pelosi favorite, showing up quite often since her Democratic caucus
election to be speaker - most notably, in the form of a collarless suit, with a single
button closure at the neckline, which she wore to a news conference last month.
But she also has been seen in such decidedly non-Washingtonian colors as sea
foam and pale pink. She's been photographed leaving meetings in a stunning suit
of all-white.
Her use of jewelry and accessories often gets noticed.
At the Women's Tea yesterday, Pelosi wore her signature multi-colored, South
Sea Tahitian pearls, with a gray suit and black shirt, adding instant life to the
traditional outfit. Those pearls, according to a Los Angeles Times article,
garnered so much attention after Pelosi first appeared in them on television,
dozens of women called a pearl wholesaler demanding necklaces just like it for
themselves. Indeed, she seems to have already started a bit of a fashion trend:
Many of the invitees at the tea - young and old - wore similar strands of large
baubles.
"I love her look and her hair," says image consultant Sandy Dumont, who calls
herself The Image Architect, "and I use her as a good example for all my female
executives. She has the epitome of the understated, 'old money' look. Old money
doesn't shout ... old money is discreet and classy, never flashy."
Republicans have attempted to brand Pelosi as "too liberal," but her fashionsense - except, perhaps, for her comfort with color - is anything but. She is
conservative in the way a woman in her position should be, experts say, well puttogether, but not boring.
"Speaker Pelosi tends to wear suits with clean lines and quality fabrics, an
indication of her no-nonsense, to-the-point leadership style," says Marva
Goldsmith, president and chief image officer of Marva Goldsmith and Associates,
a Washington-area image consultant, branding and marketing firm. "No fuss, no
bows, no doo-dads, thank goodness!"
Even as a young woman, growing up in Baltimore's Little Italy, Pelosi always had
an ease with clothes and a penchant for quality, says her brother Thomas J.
D'Alesandro III, who served as mayor of Baltimore from 1967 to 1971. Their
father, Thomas D'Alesandro Jr., was a congressman from 1939 to 1947 and
mayor from 1947 to 1959.
'Style' and 'grace'
"She always conducted herself with style, with grace," says D'Alesandro, noting
that his sister never went through an awkward, ugly duckling phase, struggling
with various hairstyles or unfortunate trends. "She wasn't a tomboy."
Pelosi's upbringing in the Italian, Catholic neighborhood - as the youngest child
and only daughter in a political family - was a modest one, D'Alesandro says. But
Pelosi still managed to appear at all times "very debonair."
"There wasn't a lot of money for the best kind of clothes," D'Alesandro says. "But
whatever the family could afford, Nancy got the best of. Wherever she went from school to recreation - she was always well-groomed with clean clothes."
Today, Pelosi can afford "the best kind of clothes," and her tendency toward
designer lines, such as Armani, has been met with both praise and criticism.
"I read that she wears Armani," says Cheryl Cooper, executive director of the
National Council of Negro Women, who went to the Women's Tea yesterday, in a
blue Escada suit. "And I'm an Armani fan. Armani is tailored but still allows a
woman to maintain her femininity at the same time. I don't think we have to look
like men to be effective in our jobs."
Detractors have said Pelosi's love of Armani suggests a disassociation with those
in "the real world," most of whom probably could not afford the high-end line.
But some female business leaders say a woman in Pelosi's position is smart to
dress herself in the label.
"If you are a woman going into the battlefield of politics and power, knowing that
you risk being flattened at any moment, you should armor up with clothes that
convey style, confidence, competence and project the image of a woman who
can carry herself with power, grace and dignity," says Debra Condren, founder of
the Women's Business Alliance. "And, hey, if you're going to get knocked to your
knees, you should be wearing that great Armani suit. Wearing powerful clothes,
you'll look more in control as you regain your footing."
Still, some wonder if there isn't too much attention altogether on what Pelosi
wears. After all, was there ever this much discussion about her predecessor Rep.
Dennis Hastert's fashion sense? Or Newt Gingrich's?
Gender stereotypes have long dogged women in politics, says Bystrom of Iowa
State. While male candidates were covered in terms of their platforms, women
too often were asked about the three H's: husbands, hairdos and hemlines.
Men vs. women
"Men got to say 'this is what I stand for. This is what I believe in,'" Bystrom says.
"Women, instead, were covered in terms of, 'This is what I'm wearing and this is
what my hair looks like and these are my kids and this is what my husband
does.'"
Public interest about style for female leaders may be unavoidable, though. No
less a political player than Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose hairstyles have been
dissected endlessly since before she became first lady in 1992, told National
Public Radio last month, "They [the voters] get to take a measure of you. They
get to decide whether they like your position on energy or whether they like your
hairstyle. It's all fair game."
Osolind, of Re:Invention, says female politicians "have good reason to long for
the day that they can silence the conversation about their clothes."
"We should be focusing our attention on Pelosi's diplomacy and new Congress
agenda," she says.
But even Osolind can't help but add, "then again, the Manolo Blahniks Pelosi
wore [recently] were pretty darn nifty."